The Georgette Heyer BBC Radio Drama Collection

by Georgette Heyer

BBC Radio adaptations of three of Georgette Heyer’s sparkling Regency romances and a classic comedy thriller

The acknowledged ‘queen of Regency romance’, bestselling author Georgette Heyer, also penned a dozen delightful mystery novels. Included here are dramatisations of four of her finest stories from both genres, full of her characteristic wit, charm and period detail.

Regency Buck
Pretty but shrewd Judith Taverner gallops in from the provinces and daringly defies the gaming, drinking and brawling world of Regency London to claim her rights, her fortune – and who knows, perhaps her happiness? Starring Elizabeth Proud as Judith Taverner and Simon Shepherd as Peregrine Taverner.

Friday’s Child
‘I’m going back to London! And I’m going to marry the first woman I see!’ is the cry of young Lord Sheringham when his proposal of marriage is rejected by Isabella, the Incomparable. True to his word, he takes the even younger Hero Wantage as his bride… Starring James Frain as Viscount Anthony Sheringham and Elli Garnett as Hero Wantage, with Simon Russell Beale as Jasper Tarleton.

Faro’s Daughter
Deborah Grantham’s position in a gaming house makes her utterly unsuitable as a wife for a nobleman, so Max Ravenscar determines to rescue his cousin from her clutches. But the bribe he offers does not go down well, and a battle of wits commences... Starring Sylvestre Le Touzel as Deborah Grantham and Nathaniel Parker as Max Ravenscar, with Anna Massey as Lady Bellingham.

Envious Casca
An English country Christmas in the 1930s, a Tudor manor house decked with holly, a family gathered for seasonal cheer – and a murder. Inspector Hemingway is on the case, but can he shake off amateur sleuths Toby and Jane French? Starring Peter Kelly as Inspector Hemingway, James Fleet as Toby and Helen Baxendale as Jane.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Romance

Audiobook

Published October 14, 2020

About the author

Georgette Heyer was a prolific historical romance and detective fiction novelist. Her writing career began in 1921, when she turned a story for her younger brother into the novel The Black Moth.

In 1925 she married George Ronald Rougier, a mining engineer. Rougier later became a barrister and he often provided basic plot outlines for her thrillers. Beginning in 1932, Heyer released one romance novel and one thriller each year.

Heyer was an intensely private person who remained a best selling author all her life without the aid of publicity. She made no appearances, never gave an interview and only answered fan letters herself if they made an interesting historical point. She wrote one novel using the pseudonym Stella Martin.

Her Georgian and Regencies romances were inspired by Jane Austen. While some critics thought her novels were too detailed, others considered the level of detail to be Heyer's greatest asset.

Heyer remains a popular and much-loved author, known for essentially establishing the historical romance genre and its subgenre Regency romance.

Reviews

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely lightweight easy listening. I read these books as a teenager and so knew the stories. Still enjoyed them but was not so keen on the dominant male hero as I used to be!

[Halina Hetman]

Мені дуже хотілося ознайомитися з творчістю Джорджет Геєр і в доступі була лише отака збірка радіоспектаклів BBC. На першій ж постановці я зрозуміла, що подібний формат підходить лише тим, хто вже читав книжки повністю і хоче ще раз насолодитися улюбленими сюжетами. Актори тут озвучують лишень діалоги, тож якщо ніколи не читала оригіналу, незрозуміло, що відбувається.

Проте я побачила, що видавництво Астролябія вже почало переклад деяких робіт Геєр українською, тож сподіваюся колись все-таки прочитати їх повністю.

[Lucy Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

A note to people thinking of listening to this - what you get is basically solely the dialogue from Heyer’s books. This works well if you know the story and are looking for a quick romp but can make it harder to follow unknown plot lines.

I particularly loved Friday’s child as it is an old favourite of mine. The dialogue is just so funny and I felt like the characters really shone through. I have ended up buying Faro’s daughter because I enjoyed this dramatisation and wanted to read it unabridged. My least favourite was Regency Buck partly because I didn’t know the story and partly because the hero was so high handed. Overall a great listen if you just need a quick pick me up.

[Vivienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a delightful collection that includes radio dramatisations of three of Georgette Heyer’s Regency romances and a locked room mystery, ‘Envious Casca’, set in a country house at Christmas during the 1930s.

While I devoured Heyer’s Regency and Georgian romances when I was young, I wasn’t aware that she had written country house mysteries. So it was great fun to discover this and ‘Envious Casca’ was the epitome of the English cosy mystery,

All four dramatisations were wonderful.

[Candace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Georgette Heyer is absolutely entrancing, and these radio dramas did a great job of distilling the three stories in the collection down to the necessary details. The romances have all the flair of Austen's sparkling, vivacious heroines - and the mystery was delightful!

[Anne]

I liked Faro’s Daughter best.

[Danee]

DNF - 6%
No star rating because i am the problem

[Alma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Includes Friday's Child, Faro's Daughter, Envious Casca, and Regency Buck (Alastair-Audley, #3).

[A.A.B · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5*s. The plays are too short - striped of the Heyer charm. The sound effects are overwhelming, while the actors performances are very difficult to tell apart, making it hard to follow the characters they are playing.

The books are much much better, but this is a good summary of the plots when a refresher is needed.